


The ghosts send their blessings

by ChocoNut



Series: Many ways to say I love you [74]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Jaime doesn’t die, Mild Angst, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Reunions, season 8 fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25241119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut
Summary: Harrenhal was where they first discovered each other.Harrenhal is where they meet again.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Many ways to say I love you [74]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1234904
Comments: 10
Kudos: 77





	The ghosts send their blessings

**Author's Note:**

> I was in the need of a fix-it today, so here it is. Thank you for reading and enjoy!

There she was.

His heart fluttering madly, Jaime held back at a distance, watching her circle the pit she’d once been once imprisoned in. Her pace, slow and measured, she halted every couple of feet or so, caressing the edge of the wall, peeping into the emptiness below, just like him, recalling, revisiting--

It felt like a different life now, and a different man, he was now. Well, literally, since Tyrion had him rescued and secretly transported to Essos to recover and recuperate. And this new incarnation, this second chance his fates had given him, he wouldn’t lay waste to. As soon as he’d set out to Westeros, he had resolved to make the most of every minute of this renewed existence.

And it had to begin with Brienne.

Apprehensive, yet, determined, he cautiously approached her, hoping to kiss those sweet lips again, but prepared for a rejection should it be the punishment she chose.

“Wench.”

She went very still, her body, taut and rigid. While she continued staring at the the pit, the exact spot where they had been pulled out, his mind was a mesh of thoughts. He tried to perceive what was going on in her mind. Rage? A sense of betrayal? Pain? Agony? What else--

When those unforgettable eyes, at last, bestowed upon him the courtesy of their attention, words failed him. Apologies, explanations, declarations of love - none of what he had been planning along his journey got past his head. All he wanted to do was stand there and get carried away by memories, sweet and sour, of what he had been and what they had become. The past came rushing in, their encounter with Locke and his beast, seeming like yesterday.

Yes -- rage, the agony of betrayal, an immense load of pain, those eyes held, but-- but above all those, the love had not diminished. She appeared to have hardened, somewhat, but over time and his absence, he could make out that her affection for him had only grown.

“I won’t ask you _why_ ,” she croaked, before he could speak.

“I’m still going to tell you.” Encouraged by the lack of visible aggression in her stance, Jaime covered the gap separating them. “For you.” He looked down at her visibly swollen belly. “For her.”

“How do you know it’s a _her_?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“I just know.” He reached out to hold her hand. “Brienne--”

“All I want right now, Jaime--” she swallowed, blinking hard, fighting something within her “--is to knock you down to the dust--”

“Do it if it’s going to bring you peace.” The despair of keeping her away from the truth swept everything else aside. “You have every right to, wench. To do what I had to, I had to sneak out into the night. Had I revealed my true intent, you would’ve followed me. My ride to King’s Landing was doomed from the beginning, going back to Cersei meant death was a near-certain fate--”

“I would’ve died for you then--” she stopped him, raising her pitch “--died like you were ready to, for me, when you leapt into this pit without thinking twice--”

“We’re knights, Brienne. To protect the innocent is, and has always been, the foremost vow we must adhere to.” He flicked away the teardrop beneath her eyelid. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell you the truth, not at the cost of sacrificing two lives for the sake of mine.” The pain in his chest was mounting, crushing him. “All I wanted was to keep you both safe, but I ended up breaking your heart, and at the end of it all, dying every day, despite surviving the war.” 

She touched her stomach. “I never told you about her.”

“But I have known it for long.” Caressing her face, he took in her tired features. “Your morning sickness, the way your body was changing... You didn’t bleed for about a moon and a half, Brienne.”

Her brows met in a surprised frown. “How could you have possibly gauged so much--”

He answered with a soft sigh, all that had happened after the feast, fresh in his memory. “Every night, we were together, exploring each other’s bodies and hearts, not a moment apart. I had grown to know you well by then, my lady, your body, mind, everything--”

“You--” sniffing, she looked away, then turned her eyes back to him again “--have you any idea what you happened to put me through?” Streams of tears began trickling down her cheeks. “After you rode away, I have spent every day and night in agony, the thought that you felt our days together was a mistake, tearing me to bits over and over again. I finally came round to console myself, to resign to the truth that Cersei was the one you were born with, the one you were made for, the fate the gods created for you--” She grabbed the front of his shirt. “Why, Jaime? Why have you come now--”

Jaime ran his thumb over her lips, silencing her. “I jumped into this pit for you, Brienne. And you, it has been, since that moment.” Talking was becoming a laborious task thanks to the lump in his throat. “I came to Harrenhal knowing you were here on Kingsguard duty and I just had to… I can’t live without you--”

“But you were ready to die without me?” she yelped in anger. “You’re an idiot, Jaime--”

“I love you,” he whispered, voicing the one thing that mattered most to him. “So much, that even near-death couldn’t keep me away from you, wench. And I know a million apologies wouldn’t compensate for the hurt I’ve caused you.” He wiped away the steady flow of tears. “I’m sorry, and--” he dreaded her answer, but still decided to say it “--if you do not wish to take me back, I’ll be gone, I swear, never to bother you again. If you cannot forgive me, I won’t blame you. I just came here to see you one last time, Brienne--”

“You’re a bigger idiot than I took you to be.” 

Pulling him closer she pressed a burning kiss to his lips. One touch of her skin, one taste of those lips he’d been thirsting for, and Jaime felt like the man he once was in Winterfell, carefree, uninhibited and utterly and completely in love. Her arms, he’d never dream of relinquishing, from now on, her eyes, he would, forever, be tied to, and her lips -- her sweet lips were an intoxication, he’d never want to sober away from. Her warm body -- well, he couldn’t wait to rediscover the magic of it, dying to be enclosed, once again, in the web of pleasure she’d cast on him all those nights at Winterfell.

And an _afterwards_ with her and their child -- that he would die for, for it was the most precious gift she could grace him with.

Her lips were trembling when she broke the kiss, “What makes you think I’m going to let go of you again? You had one escape, Ser Jaime Lannister. But not again. Joanna and I will make sure you don’t slip away into the night--”

“Joanna?”

She brought his hand to her belly. “ _Her_.”

Locked in each other’s arms, their foreheads pressed together, they stood there as twilight paved the way for dusk, weaving dreams of a future untarnished by their past, a life that could finally begin.

“You could’ve arranged to meet me at King’s Landing,” she wondered aloud, glancing around. “Why here?”

“Harrenhal has always been a part of us. Is it not fitting that we come upon a reunion here?” He smiled when his eyes fell on the bear pit again. “The ghosts of these ruins have blessed us, wench. Besides--” he looked into those bewitching eyes again “--I couldn’t wait for you to get back to the capital.”

“Let’s not waste anymore time then.” He could sense the urgency in her voice. “There’s a Sept not far from here--”

“Yes,” he said, before she could finish asking. “Yes, Brienne. And as soon as we’re married, we must pay a visit to the baths. It’s been a while since we’ve been in one--”

“What could be better than returning to the one that drew us to each other?” she agreed with a smile and a familiar blush creeping up her cheeks.

Taking her hand, Jaime led her down the stairs, impatient to make her his wife, eager to take her, once more, to the place that flipped him from the Kingslayer to the Oathkeeper in her eyes. Harrenhal was where they had first _found_ each other. And it would be where they would exchange sacred vows of togetherness, to become one forever, never to be parted again.


End file.
